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Comment by vadansky | Hacker News Reader

Unrelated, but sites like these always temper the excitement for me about psychedelics. If psychedelics could really revolutionize human consciousness and open new frontiers, you would think they would be able to make a less crackpot looking site. Same with Terrance Mackena. All these people who preach psychedelics don't end up accomplishing much besides writing profusely about psychedelics. However on the other hand we have Cricks and DNA and LSD so who knows.

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> If psychedelics could really revolutionize human consciousness and open new frontiers,

Psychedelics are not magic. They typically trigger serotonin receptors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_drug

This might be useful for interventions by medical experts. Like narcotics are useful for surgical interventions or antibiotics are useful against bacteria infections.

https://www.livescience.com/16287-mushrooms-alter-personalit...

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-ps...

DO NOT use psychedelics to solve your problems or when you are in a bad mood. You risk a bad trip causing PTSD and panic disorder or worse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_trip

https://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/36gj2h/can_ptsd_be_c...

https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Set_and_setting#Mental_State

I would agree that you probably don't want to do psychedelics when severely depressed. But they can be quite helpful if you feel you're in a "rut" that you feel like you can't get out of.

I am no friend of drugs in general and psychedelics in particular.

It might work to get out of a rut but, IMO, the risks (what dosage?) are not worth it. Certainly not without professional assistance (not a shaman). The new rut might be much worse than the old rut.

Also: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/charting-the-depths/...

IMO no problem is solved by psychedelics. Unless you sell them to solve your money problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkbMtkwU2g

There are no risks from occasional use of psychedelics. There's tons of evidence (anecdotal and published) that psychedelics can be extremely helpful.

I hate to say this, but I think you can't really speak coherently about psychedelics unless you have personal, first-hand experience.

Yes, there is evidence that psychedelics can be useful. I agree that they can be useful to give a different perspective to quit a rut, as you wrote.

Still, according to experts and many anecdotes on reddit, psychedelics are very risky (unwanted bad effects) and not safe drugs and not miracle drugs.

The risk of bad short term and long term effects depends highly on the dosage and the personal mindset and the current environment. Nobody knows in advance how your brain will react.

https://www.reddit.com/r/drugs

https://www.reddit.com/r/Psychedelics

Likely a confirmation bias (?) - the people who spend the most time raving about psychedelics probably don't spend much time on other projects. The users working on other projects don't spend a lot of time advocating for psychedelics.

You’re talking about professional psychedelic enthusiasts, for the most part. There are many people who have used psychedelics to improve their lives in big ways and small who simply don’t talk about it — because it’s illegal and because there’s a stigma attached to it.

LSD and ecstasy had a profound impact on me to such an extent that I can’t even imagine what my life would be like today without the experiences. I’m almost certain I’d be a less happy, less successful person.

But I’m not exactly going to have a casual conversation about it with someone that I don’t know very well.

>Same with Terrance Mackena. All these people who preach psychedelics don't end up accomplishing much besides writing profusely about psychedelics.

As far as Terrence McKenna is concerned, I think the man accomplished a little more than writing profusely about psychedelics. He was a brilliant lecturer. There are probably 100+ of his talks available on YouTube. The topics of those talks often go far beyond mere rambling about psychedelics.

Unrelated aside: I hadn't heard of the Crick + LSD thing yet, so I looked into it. Wikipedia quotes this article, saying it's likely a false rumor: http://realitysandwich.com/314873/francis-crick-dna-lsd/

Elon Musk is a psychedelics user. Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates used LSD when they were younger. It’s not really a psychedelic, but I’ve always enjoyed the fact that Thomas Edison loved his cocaine wine.

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